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Pornographic addiction and need of sex education in #Pakistan

Makhdoom Shahabuddin

After decades of helping to define and elucidate the internet, pornographic addiction has always been on the cusp of being considered as a taboo in Pakistan, pushed out of the public eye and segregated into the dark, seedy corners of our personal domains. We live in a Pakistani society where most people often feel uncomfortable when discussing this topic with anyone. The affected people of porn addiction often suffer from a multitude of mental and social problems such as low sex drive, low self-esteem, relationship issues and the use of porn to alleviate themselves from depression or anxiety. It’s high time when we start considering porn addiction as a disease and not as a taboo about which we could not speak of.

Porn addiction just like many addictions is a biopsychosocial disorder fueled by compulsively seeking something with a desired effect, such as intoxication or substance abuse despite knowing the consequences of the addictive stimulus. Scientific researches have proved that pornographic addiction is in fact a disease and should not be a topic that needs to seal a lid put on it and deem it as a taboo. This type of addiction is quite common. Some doctors consider porn addiction to be a hypersexual disorder — an umbrella term that includes behaviors such as excessive masturbation. A recent study on males who sought treatment for problematic pornography use found changes in the participants’ brains that were consistent with addiction. The researchers found that the brains of the men with problematic pornographic use reacted differently to erotic images — or the anticipation of them — than the brains of men without this problem. Just like any other addiction, porn addiction also shows and highlights addictive behavior, dependence, mild withdrawal symptoms such as fatigue, rewarding and eventually tolerance which could lead porn addicts from finding difficulty to masturbate twice to easily cross three to four times in certain occasions.

Porn addiction often can start in adolescence but most parents don’t realize until the problem becomes bigger.

One of the reasons porn is difficult to talk about is because the topic makes it easy to be judgmental of both ourselves and of each other. Our generation’s relationship with sex from the outset was one tied to embarrassment and secrecy. This fault in dialogue, in which exploring our sexual identities is written off as wrong, feeds into the lack of conversation surrounding porn addiction and further complicates people’s relationships with their own sexualities. Another problem is how our educational system does not seek to educate on these aspects and that’s why many people have a hard time communicating to someone whom they can trust. We also live in a society where thinking and telling about therapy or visiting a psychiatrist can place a label of insanity on you. With many Pakistanis symbolizing psychiatrists as doctors for the mentally insane and not seeing them as therapists, most people don’t try to visit a therapist as they have this fear that they are going to be branded as insane too. Porn addiction is certainly a mental disease and it should be advised to everyone to openly talk about it as with every addiction, finding the courage to speak up about it is always very difficult. Moreover we are also encompassed by our religion and are often scared about what our fellow Muslims would think about us and our personality. Poor guidance by a few self-proclaimed religious experts also places a lot of people in a burden and makes them think of the consequences and horrors of telling the truth about their addiction. People should realize that Islam is a religion that inculcates forgiveness and allows people to start over a new leaf.

Porn addiction often can start in adolescence but most parents don’t realize until the problem becomes bigger. It is certainly not easy to parent a child who is addicted to pornography. Today, parents need to realize that with the proliferation of personal mobile devices, these mobile devices have become ground zero in the fight against pornography. For one thing, those who are trapped by pornography usually feel they can more easily conceal their online behavior if they use a personal mobile device to access it. Further, because these devices are small and personal and mobile, the act of reading or viewing inappropriate content is easier to hide. Mobile devices can be fun and useful, but it is critical that parents understand what it takes to make mobile devices as safe as possible against pornography.

Parents must also understand that social media apps are also a Trojan Horse in the battle against pornography because they provide a virtually unlimited source of pornography to our children’s devices. An otherwise secure mobile device that does not have access to an unfiltered web browser or other unsafe apps can still be a danger to children unless we take important precautions regarding how they use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and other social media apps. Moreover, there are many hardware products you can buy to help filter internet content on your home Wi-Fi network. Some of these products act as your home’s router; others interface wirelessly with your router. Both types of hardware function as a filter and a monitoring tool. With this, parents can effectively monitor their children. Another problem lies in the attitudes of parents when dealing with such sensitive topics and it is always advised that the parents should be more open about such topics and deal the matters with love and kindness. By doing so, a child can be more confident in sharing that he or she has porn addiction instead of hiding it.

Finally, it is also necessary for schools to add sex education into their curriculum to help tackle this issue. There is a need for education to be implemented in all private and government schools with a syllabus covering all the aspects of sex education for youth. This should form the vital part of the curriculum helping the youth to understand the unethical aspects of porn.

#Pakistan #HinduTemple -Behind the culture of impunity: Halting construction of Hindu temple in Islamabad

By Waqar Gillani

Amidst pressure from religious and political actors, the construction of Islamabad’s first Hindu temple is halted. But this is part of a systematic pattern of bigotry and oppression.

Recently, Dr Arfana Mallah, an outstanding progressive voice from Sindh, a poet, and a senior teacher of Chemistry at the University of Jamshoro, facing violent backlash and threats of being charged with alleged blasphemy for her views on the blasphemy laws, had to abandon support for a fellow teacher of another varsity trapped in a blasphemy case. She had come to the support of Sajid Somro, a teacher of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, booked under blasphemy charges in June allegedly in response to the pressure of rivals with radical religious ideologies. “We can differ with the teacher’s views or may not like them at all but cannot settle score with him this way by lodging a blasphemy case,” she had said.

Dr Mallah’s crime was to raise voice for Dr Somro, who has been freed on bail. Her opponents wanted to lodge a blasphemy case against her and went on a hate campaign warning her of a fate like Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab who was killed by his official bodyguard merely for criticizing blasphemy laws in 2011. She alleged that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), a mainstream religio-political party, was behind the campaign, a claim denied by the party.

However, owing to the danger to her life, in a video message on social media, Dr Mallah tendered an apology a few weeks ago, thanking noted clerics of the province for giving her this opportunity to publicly apologise. After this apology, Dr Mallah has confined herself to her house.

This way of pressurizing and suppressing freedom of belief, particularly, of those who are religious minorities or independent-thinking groups has become a pattern with the state nowhere in the scene to protect the victims.

In May, the Bahawalpur city administration demolished a number of houses of Hindu community in the Yazman area after a complaint alleging the occupation of state land and the selling of liquor by the community in the area. In March 2019, Khateeb Hussain, a third-year student at Bahawalpur’s Government Sadiq Egerton College stabbed his teacher Associate Professor Khalid Hameed to death over what he vaguely described as the academic’s “anti-Islam” remarks and openly confessed his crime; and, case proceedings are very slow amid alleged pressure of religious groups. In December 2019, Jannat Hussain Nekokara, the assistant commissioner of Attock, was forced to apologise for her comments in support of equal rights for religious minorities and calling for unity regardless of religious divisions on an event arranged on International Human Rights Day. Soon after her speech, she was surrounded by young students along with other staff, she was forced to explain her faith in front of everyone.

Another Rawalpindi-based college teacher of English Literature, Anwar Ahmad, is facing blasphemy case for death penalty for interpreting Urdu poet Josh Malih Abadi’s verses on the concept of Heaven. A religiously motivated student made video of his lecture and uploaded on social media to trap him. Juanid Hafeez, a gold medalist lecturer in Multan, was awarded death sentence in a blasphemy case after right-wing students at the varsity accused him.

In the latest episode, a systematic campaign by religious extremist groups, publicly supported by Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) – one of the key political allies of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) – compelled Capital Development Authority to halt the construction of first-ever Hindu temple in Islamabad. The previous political regime allotted the piece of land for the construction of a state-of-the-art temple-cum-community centre for the small Hindu population of the city in 2017 after a due process. CDA had transferred ownership of the plot to Islamabad Hindu Panchayat and a small groundbreaking ceremony for the temple construction took place at the end of June attended by the federal minister for religious affairs and minority Hindu community representatives. The government had also announced a substantial grant of Rs 10 million for help in the temple construction.

The situation forced the government to stop this construction and refer the matter to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) seeking opinion as to whether a Muslim government can fund a temple construction.

“Almost every day, different people are coming to the construction site and demolishing the foundation walls of Krishna Temple and taking away other construction material,” says Lal Chand, a representative of Islamabad Hindu Panchayat. He adds that they had written to the authorities to provide security after the hate-campaigns but had not received support.Video footage and posts circulating on social media support Chand’s statement. In one such message, people, more prominently, youth, are demolishing the foundation walls saying they would not allow construction of a Hindu temple in Islamabad, a city named after their religion (Islam). Another post as part of a social media campaign calls for building a mosque rather than temple on this site to avenge the demolition of the Babri Majid in Hindu-dominated India.Some clerics of extremist factions issued decrees against the construction of this temple in Islamabad. A statement of PML-Q leader Ch Pervaiz Elahi, however, proved to be the most dangerous addition in this hate campaign. Elahi, in his video message, said the construction of temple is against the spirit of Islam. “Pakistan was created in the name of Islam. Construction of a new Hindu temple in its capital is not only against the spirit of Islam but also an insult to Riasat-e-Madina (Islamic welfare state),” he said. The situation forced the government to stop this construction and refer the matter to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) seeking opinion as to whether a Muslim government can fund a temple construction.

Elahi’s message has been damaging notes Chand, adding, “We hope that we will get our right.”

The power of extremist elements lies in the sometimes open, and at others, tacit support of governments who do not take serious action out of the fear of losing political support, as these elements exploit religious sentiments of the public. In the case of Dr Mallah, Sindh’s ruling party, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) failed to extend open support to her despite in power for despite claims of being progressive. According to insiders, the ruling PPP dared not to touch this matter during the All Parties Conference despite insistence by progressives.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USIRF), in its 2020 Annual Report, highlights that the “systematic enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, and authorities’ failure to address forced conversions of religious minorities—including Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs—to Islam, severely restricted freedom of religion or belief”. The report adds that “these (controversial) blasphemy laws create a culture of impunity for violent attacks following accusations.”

https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/684795-behind-the-culture-of-impunity

#Pakistan - Imran Khan’s story is full of corruption, greed, intoxication and ego

Deputy Information Secretary Pakistan Peoples Party, Palwasha Khan has said that Imran Khan cannot hide his corruption mafia by removing Ajmal Wazir who has been caught red handed.

Palwasha Khan said that Imran Khan cannot act against these corrupt elements because Bani Gala is the den of corruption and he is beneficiary of this loot and plunder of money earned by honest people of Pakistan. A minister of his cabinet looted money from poor Pakistanis when he increased the prices of medicines. That minister was replaced and made secretary general of the most corrupt party of Pakistan, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf. The ministers who robbed people in wheat and sugar scandals are still sitting in Imran Khan’s lap, she said.

Palwasha Khan said that the Bani Gala Palace is the centre of corrupt activities and PTI own member Punjab assembly Uzma Kardar has exposed the corruption of Imran Khan and his family. Ali Zaidi is another corrupt minister but he could not be apprehended because he is one of the earners of Bani Gala. Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s corruption was exposed by PTI MNA Ahmed Hasan Dehar but no action was taken against Qureshi. Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme is also a story of mega-corruption in which Imran Khan is wasting hard earned money by the poor people of Pakistan by giving 31 billion rupees.

Palwasha Khan said that the main character behind Roosevelt Hotel in the USA is no other than Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan. Palwasha Khan said that Ajmal Wazir is being sacrificed at the altar of Imran Khan’s corruption, intoxication, greed and ego.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/2020/07/11/imran-khans-story-is-full-of-corruption-greed-intoxication-and-ego/